


Drabble: Forgotten

by selynne



Category: The Secret of the Unicorn Queen - Josepha Sherman
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Originally Posted on LiveJournal, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-01-28
Updated: 2007-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-08 01:21:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13447521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/selynne/pseuds/selynne
Summary: Drabble challenge: "Forgotten" in 500 words or less. First posted (years ago) to the SUQ Community on Livejournal.





	Drabble: Forgotten

She had sworn that she would never forget them. She had promised herself that she would return someday and explain everything, even if it meant risking that they might never forgive her.

She has kept that first vow, but not the second.

Her son runs by, laughing, and she scoops him up into her arms, resting her chin atop his small dark head as he squirms and giggles in her embrace.

He is three years old today, grinning at her with his father's eyes and a smattering of freckles across his nose. He is beautiful and precious and one-half of everything she loves most, in this world or any other. She doesn't like to think about how she would feel if he were to grow up and leave, if he just up and disappeared one day, without any sort of warning or explanation, never to be seen again. As she had done.

In her quieter, more unsettling moments, she has often wondered which would be worse: to believe that her son had simply vanished, or to learn that he'd willingly left. What kind of pain would it cause, to know that your only child had chosen a life without you? One that, in truth, you could never be a part of?

She wonders if she could survive that knowledge. She wonders if maybe, in such a case, ignorance really *is* bliss.

Her husband slides an arm around her, warm and strong, wordless with comfort. She eases back into him, flush with relief, knowing that he is the only one capable of understanding her unspoken thoughts, knowing that he - while any outside observer would only see a mother cuddling her son - understands what is truly going on inside her.   

After a moment she turns to face him, their little boy wedged in the space between, and gladly accepts his kiss.  He smiles down at her, and she feels at peace again, because the truth is this: she cannot leave behind the man she loves any more than she could abandon their child. The path between their two worlds is dangerous and unsure, and as long as there is even the *slightest* chance that she might not be able to return to them, she dares not walk it again.

Sheila McCarthy has kept her first vow, but not the second.

She tells herself that her parents would understand.


End file.
